During a Historic Hurricane Season, Microgrids Kept Communities Running

RMI outlines five key factors—facility suitability, electricity costs/net metering, energy efficiency, battery sizing, and available funding—to help US communities deploy solar-plus-battery microgrids that serve as resilience hubs during disasters.

• Solar-plus-battery-storage microgrids serve as the foundation for community resilience hubs by allowing facilities like schools, churches, and city halls to generate and store electricity independently of the broader grid, providing essential services during prolonged outages.
• Successful microgrid implementation in low-to-moderate income US communities depends on five factors: the building's existing role as a trusted community space, high electricity costs paired with favorable net metering, prior energy efficiency improvements to reduce system size, affordable battery sizing based on specific resilience needs, and access to grants or tax credits.
• Battery sizing strategies vary by financial and resilience goals: sizing for 'critical load' is recommended where net metering rates are high, while sizing for 'self-consumption' or 'peak shaving' is more effective where net metering is low or unavailable.
• Various federal and state funding mechanisms are available to offset costs, including the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which can cover 30–70 percent of costs for solar-plus-storage microgrids up to 1 MW for non-taxable entities, and programs like Solar for All, REAP, and HMGP.

APA

RMI (2025). During a Historic Hurricane Season, Microgrids Kept Communities Running. https://rmi.org/resources/during-a-historic-hurricane-season-microgrids-kept-communities-running/

Chicago

RMI. During a Historic Hurricane Season, Microgrids Kept Communities Running. 2025. https://rmi.org/resources/during-a-historic-hurricane-season-microgrids-kept-communities-running/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=During a Historic Hurricane Season, Microgrids Kept Communities Running |date=24 February 2025 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/during-a-historic-hurricane-season-microgrids-kept-communities-running/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2025during, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{During a Historic Hurricane Season, Microgrids Kept Communities Running}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2025}, month = feb, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/during-a-historic-hurricane-season-microgrids-kept-communities-running/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }